Apparently (string that word out) back in the day Romans used the mineral known as asbestos. There was reluctance by Romans to buy slaves who had worked with asbestos as they were well aware they tended to die at much younger age.
Thousands of years later the use of asbestos had been banned and thereby preventing people, not just workers, from a long and slow death. Asbestos mining and its common use happened in my and your lifetime. Isn't it just so amazing that the danger to lives by asbestos exposure was known about so many thousands of years ago.
Just for fun when I and ABI Brother were young, we broke up asbestos sheets, along with pulling apart asbestos pipe insulation. In the 1980s I replaced a cracked asbestos sheet on the garage of our first home with what was then called 'cement sheet'. That along with being doused with DDT from farm weed spray outfits and covered with superphosphate dropped from a plane, well it is wonder we are alive.
Sadly asbestos is still mined and used in some countries and Australia has been vigilant at not allowing products into the country that contain asbestos. Hopefully Australia does better with that than it does was drugs and illegally imported cigarettes.
When we moved to the Highrise, it came with lovely black marble benchtops. Unfortunately the benchtops only looked good when cleaned as you would clean clear glass. I can't remember now but between five and ten years ago we had a kitchen makeover. How we hated the faux timber finish on the cupboard doors. Gloss white is so much better. This was a breakfast bar but we never used it as such and so shallow cupboards installed there instead. That cleared food from a shelf in the linen press cupboard, leaving a large empty shelf, which of course has stayed empty ever since. No?
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While it looks impervious, Caesar Stone will stain if care is not taken.
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Behind these doors,
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this brown was the external cupboard colour.
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When we changed the benchtops to Caesar Stone, the measurements were taken by a laser device and the benchtop fitted perfectly. Well done to those who cut it to fit, and I hope you don't prematurely die because of our bench tops.
The disease silicosis has been known about for a long time, just not quite as long as asbestos has been known about. The precautions in place are inadequate and those who cut stone benchtops are showing silicosis symptoms and in some cases dying at an early age. Even with huge precautions, still the dust gets into the workers' lungs. I first heard about this perhaps four years ago yet the cutting of stone benchtops continues. Our big green hardware shed will stop selling stone benchtops by the end of the year, and the big Swedish furniture company is doing the same.
In my opinion our Federal Government should have banned exposure to stone cutting of home stone benchtops years ago. Given the long process for asbestos to be banned, why wasn't this health danger quickly stomped on?
But it is a curious thing that while the measurements of a stone benchtop could be taken by laser a number of years ago, that it now can't be cut by a laser equipped robot in a dust proof room and then sluiced down with with water to remove any dust? That's somewhat like cars are spray painted after and accident repair.
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Sadly the manufacturers are fighting tooth and nail against this ban. Our bench tops are marble, and even that no doubt has issues for the workmen who cut and install it. You are right about the robot workers too.
ReplyDeleteEC, I suppose cutting any stone will cause dust. They can wear respirators but still the minute matter gets all over their clothing.
DeleteDid other countries ban the cutting of stone benchtops? Did their rate of silicosis go down substantially? Perhaps the results were even written up in the medical journals that Australian Health Dept scientists read.
ReplyDeleteHels, from what I could see, no but there are laws in place about how it should be cut.
DeleteI have not heard of that here. Off to Google.
ReplyDeleteI think you'll find it disturbing Debby.
DeleteI am wondering if this only applies to manufactured stone benchtops or does it also apply to benchtops of natural granite, or natural marble. They still need to be cut, but do the natural products contain the silicon dust which is causing the problems? I agree with your laser robot in a sealed room idea.
ReplyDeleteRiver, that's a good point. Cutting any stone will create dust but is it the bad dust that comes from cutting this composite material?
DeleteThe answer is probably money. People's health never trumps money in private industry. I didn't know about Romans' awareness of the effects of asbestos. That's amazing - and depressing that the product continued to be used even with that knowledge. Again, money, I imagine.
ReplyDeleteJenny, no doubt post Roman times the knowledge was lost. You are correct about money. Now businesses will have to invest in some high tech robotic cutting equipment.
DeleteStrange world we live in most of the time these days. Abestos, Have lived with it, watched and stood men break it and so on, bench tops, we don't have stone, son just re modernized his kitchen and used wood as a bench top..Can't understand how if long ago it was known that abestos caused the slaves to not live long having been near it or using it, why on earth would the rest of the world use it. Lessons not learnt. Those poor people, what an awful way to their death they must have had.
ReplyDeleteI remember one local spokesperson against asbestos, Margaret. Bernie someone and he lived for years although very unwell but of course he did eventually die.
DeleteWe ignore ancient wisdom at our peril, but distinguishing between wisdom and old wives' tales can be tricky.
ReplyDeleteJB, that's quite true. There was some rather good knowledge around in ancient times.
DeleteA jeweller friend died a couple of years ago from asbestos. I have no idea where her exposure to it occurred though. Potters have known for years of the dangers of silicosis just from the dust they generate doing certain tasks.
ReplyDeleteIt can be a scary world out there.
Pat, some people seem very susceptible to asbestosis and it is probably the same with silicosis. Can I correctly assume silicosis can come from clay dust?
DeleteI've never heard of this either, and as far as I know stone countertops are perfectly legal here in the UK. By the time I was a kid, asbestos was known to be cancer-causing, but my grandparents had it wrapped all around the boiler in their basement. It didn't affect us, though, because it's only a problem when it's broken apart or otherwise manipulated, as I understand it. If it's sealed in insulation and left alone it's fine.
ReplyDeleteSteve, yes left alone it is not a threat except to those who installed it. I'm pretty sure asbestos removal in England is treated as seriously as it is here. But there are cowboys out there too.
DeleteHow amazing that the Romans knew about aabestos.
ReplyDeleteI know a family in the US who lost dad and grandma within weeks of each other. They believed their cancers came from asbestos in talcum powder which was used liberally in their home.
Stonemasons lung has been around forever but it would seem that corian makes smaller dust particles than other stone and gets deeper into the lungs.
I'm glad my bench top is simple laminex
Kylie, perhaps no more than just the connection between the two.
DeleteI haven't heard that talc contained asbestos. My mother should have died many years ago if that's the case.
Corian, right. Yes, that makes sense. Thanks.